


Stay

by notcoolenoughtobehere



Series: Frazel for Days [5]
Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Dead Hazel, Desperate need for edits, F/M, Frank's confidence issues, Ghost!Hazel, Grief/Mourning, Ignoring ToA, Monsters, Necromancy, Nico di Angelo's powers, No beta no quality writing no hope for the future, Post-The Blood of Olympus, Sad Frank, Self-Sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-06-23 09:26:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15603327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notcoolenoughtobehere/pseuds/notcoolenoughtobehere
Summary: Frank doesn't see the hellhound's claw that is swooping down a foot above his head.Hazel does.





	Stay

It takes Frank three full weeks before he finds himself at the door of Nico di Angelo at Camp Half-Blood.

Frank knows it's too early to disturb him, the sky still pale purple with night. He waits outside, still debating with himself, hand hovering over the Hades cabin door. Four seconds pass by, counted carefully in his head, before he raps at the door quietly. It's a bargain, almost, with the universe, and he promises he'll walk away right now if Nico doesn't wake up to the muted noise.

Before he can complete his bargain, the door opens to reveal a sleepy Nico, half of his hair pancaked in the air like Hazel's always does. Always did.

Hazel's older brother recognizes him after a few moments of blurry blinking. His face softens just barely when he sees who it is, but there is another shield in his eyes that Frank almost recognizes.

Nico looks as bad as Frank feels. His eyes are dark and heavy, sleepless bags pressed on his eyelids in purple stains.

Frank is mid-mumble a morning greeting when Nico interrupts.

"I can't do it. Leo's a big question mark, but I can't do it for her. I'm sorry." His voice is quiet but firm. The almost self-destructive monotony that laces his tone makes Frank wonder if he's already tried.

Frank takes a breath and ignores the tears that sting his eyes. It feels like they've become his constant companion.

"I wasn't going to ask you that. I know you can't bring her back." His voice cracks as he ends and he shakes his head, clearing his throat to rid himself of the emotion that rushes on him.

"I just" - Stupid, stupid, stupid - "miss her." Frank can't look Nico in the eye.

Frank plays with the edge of his t-shirt, trying to straighten the wavy hem. His heart tumbles in his esophagus. "I-I know you have probably already seen her."

Nico blinked at him numbly. Then, he nodded his head once. Frank took a moment to pull the threads of himself together enough to say it with conviction.

"I want you to take me to see her."

\--

Hazel is all about sacrifice.

When she died the first time, it was noble. A sacrifice for the good of the world, a sacrifice to at least delay Gaea's slaughter. As the burning oil swept through the cave and boulders tumbled down, Hazel clung to her weeping mother and, amidst the fear, felt some sort of peace.

When she dies the second time, it is noble. A sacrifice for the good of the world, a sacrifice to save someone she loves. As the life bleeds out of her, Hazel feels the warmth of Frank next to her, and, amidst the fear, feels some sort of peace.

The heat is heavy and wet and Frank wonders if he will drown in it. It presses against him from every side, a claustrophobic cloud. 

Months after the final battle, a huge army of monsters were reported by Camp Half Blood satyrs in the California Bay Area, potentially left over from the Giant wars. A group of demigods were sent out to investigate, headed by Praetor Frank Zhang. 

They weren't enough. There are hundreds of monsters, both Greek and Roman, and they nearly crawl over each other to reach the demigods the moment they come within sight of the horde.

Frank notches another arrow in his bow and lands it in the forehead of a Dracaena. She disappears into dust with a shriek. 

Hazel is ten feet away atop Arion, her spatha destroying three Karpoi in a single swinging arc. In seconds, she zooms halfway across the battlefield in a blur of color. Frank can see ten other purple t-shirted campers holding their own, but the remaining monsters are still attacking in a disarrayed frenzy.

Frank shoots three more arrows before his quiver is empty. He switches seamlessly to his spear, stabbing as many monsters as he could reach until the ones around him flee. It would take a miracle for them to get out of here alive. 

Frank doesn't see the hellhound's claw behind him that is swooping down a foot above his head.

Hazel does.

\--

"I won't take you to the Underworld, Frank." 

"Why not?"

"Oh, there's a list of reasons. Would you like me to start at the beginning, with 'because it's the Underworld not a casual jaunt to Central Park,' or at the end, with 'you're not a child of Hades and because I said so?'"

"I've already seen it," Frank said, "in Hazel's blackout. The Fields of Asphodel. She sat underneath a poplar tree for a few decades, with nothing but her past keeping her company."

"She's not in the Fields. Of course she's not. She's in Elysium, Frank." Nico pauses for a beat, and his face morphs slightly - the closest Frank had seen him come to grief since the incident. "She's . . . happy." 

"If you don't take me to the Underworld, I'll find some way there myself."

The small firewood rests in Frank's pocket, an existential brick that seems to deepen his tread into the mud. Frank had forgotten how heavy it is. Hazel had held onto it for so long - part of Frank wonders if it is heavier than it used to be, weighed down with Hazel's death.

Nico cast his eyes over Frank disdainfully. He fights a small war in his expression, but Nico eventually settles on a melancholic guilt. 

"I won't bring you to the Underworld." Frank opened his mouth to protest, but Nico interrupted him. "I'll bring the Underworld to you."

\--

Frank hears a gasp from behind him. His blood drains from his face and flushes to his chest, where his heart beats alight with fear.

He takes a hesitant step back, his breath already halting in his throat. After an eternity, he turns his head to peek over his shoulder.

Oh, gods. 

Hazel is still standing, arms spread wide, and, gods, gods, Frank thinks, she looks so _small_. Frank turns his body slowly, so slowly, until he is facing her back. 

Half a lifetime passes like this, counted in the space of three breaths. 

Frank sees the giant shadow of the hellhound begin to crumble into golden sand.

Hazel turns around with a few clunky, uneven steps, a hand hesitantly touching her heart, where one of four giant cuts starts. Blood seeps through in strips that run from her collarbone to her hips. The battle slows around them as Frank watches Hazel crumple into herself like a piece of paper.

The hellhound is still dissolving into dust. Hazel's spatha falls to the ground with a thud as its victim disappears. 

Arion lies twenty feet away. Frank isn't sure if he's wounded or dead.

Time smashes into reality.

Frank jumps forward, closing the small space between him and Hazel's body. Alarm floods every pore of his body, clogging his senses in a hazy blur, but he can still see Hazel's panicked face clearly.

And there's blood everywhere, soaking her purple t-shirt black and surrounding her in an ocean. 

\--

Nico tosses the last happy meal into the root beer grave. 

"Let the dead taste again," Nico methodically begins.

They are in an area just beyond the borders of Camp Half Blood's forest. It's eerie enough in the darkness, with the trees rising around them in skeletal pillars, but the aura Nico supplies makes Frank's flesh crawl.

Frank twists Hazel's spatha in his palm. He'd picked it up from the dust of the hellhound and strapped it to his back. There wasn't any real danger or reason to have it out. The blade was long and impractical for hand to hand combat, anyway. But so many shadow faces watch from the forest that Frank was glad to have protection.

"Let them rise and take the offering. Let them remember."

Then Nico begins chanting in Ancient Greek. In it, Frank only recognizes Hazel's name. Nervous heartbeats clap in his ears.

Pale blurry forms begin taking shape, converging on the root beer grave in a mass.

Nico stops chanting momentarily. "No." he said, annoyed, using his black sword to push the spirits away. "Back off."

Nico resumes his chants. Spirits swirl around him in a growing smokescreen. The pale fog spreads out, a tendril nearly reaching out to Frank's leg. He bounces back several feet, but he can feel the cold that seeps from them. 

The silence that falls then is so sudden and disarming that Frank raises Hazel's spatha, ready to fight - but it was simply Nico, ending his chant. For a few seconds, everything stands still, and even Frank's heart seemed to quiet, waiting. Then, the cloud moves forward and converges in a billowing mass, cascading in pale layers. 

A face emerges from the pillar of smoke.

Hazel.

\--

Frank's hands shake as he tries to stop the bleeding, pressing numbly to as many open wounds as he could find, hoping his giant, stupid, clumsy hands could hold her together. 

"Hazel, Hazel, Hazel, listen, stay awake stay awake talk to me talk to me talk to me," Frank stutters out.

"Frank." Hazel says, loud and clear and alive. Frank's eyes jump to her face. Hazel's cheeks are already pale and growing ashy.

"What! What, what do you need. What can I do, Hazel?"

Hazel's eyes are glassy, staring out into space. She reaches out, obviously searching for something, but her eyes remain fixated on some point in the sky. Frank glances around desperately, oh gods, oh gods, what can he do?

Her hand taps his arm and she sighs a small, painful breath of relief. She traces down until she meets his hand, and she takes his in hers, pulling it away from the wounds that line her abdomen. Hazel doesn't look afraid, but she holds tight to his hand, her knuckles turning ghostly white. Frank wonders if her grip can anchor her here. 

"Hazel, I need to go get help." But even as Frank says the words, he knows there is no help he can bring. The amount of ambrosia and nectar needed to fix this would burn her to ash long before it would heal her. Hazel's other hand reaches out dumbly, sliding from his shoulder to cup his face. Her hands are cold and wet. Frank isn't crying - the wetness is blood, dark and metallic.

"Don't go," Hazel whispers, her voice gurgling as a trickle of blood leaks from the corner of her mouth. Her eyelids flutter.

"No, no, stay awake stay awake. Stay - "

"Shh, shh. It's okay, Frank." But her voice is shaking and tears are weaving their way through the mud on her face. She gasps through bloodied lips. 

"Stay with me, Hazel."

"I can see the sky, this time," she murmurs sleepily, "It's a prettier thing to die under." 

And then Frank's tears come.

\--

Ghost Hazel's eyes open slowly. Her eyes have a golden brown tint to them that slowly becomes more concrete as her eyes focus on her brother. 

"Hazel." Nico whispers.

And it is _Hazel_. From the curl of her hair that tumbles across her forehead to the slight rise and fall of her shoulders, it is Hazel. She wipes the back of her palm across her cheek like she's just woken up. It slams on Frank with the weight of a tank, a warped happiness and a heavy grief that mixes tears in his eyes. 

"Nico?" Hazel tips her head to the side. Frank watches the way one eyebrow barely lowers in concern and her lips curl into confusion. He's seen the expression a hundred times but it ignites a fire in his lungs that burns through his chest. 

"Hey," Nico croaks. 

"Why have - " Her eyes rise to meet Frank's wide gaze. He holds his breath, afraid to disrupt the stillness of the woods. Hazel smiles.

The air between them melts away.

"Hazel," Frank gasps. Nico looks from him to Hazel and then disappears into the darkness of the trees.

Frank is conflicted, to say the least. A weight lifts from his shoulders, like being away from Hazel has been a heavy burden he didn't notice was there. In exchange for the weight, seeing Hazel chokes him with an icy hand around his esophagus, as if he might asphyxiate at any moment. 

Frank is _a foot away_ from Hazel, and though her hands and legs still evaporate into a misty white, her smile is focused and real. Frank finds himself smiling back at her, with so much giddy happiness thundering in his veins that he doesn't notice the tears that gather and overflow in his eyes. He raises his hand, desperate to confirm that she is here and tangible. His hand falls back to his side when he remembers that Hazel is neither really here nor tangible. 

"Frank, I've missed you." Hazel tucks a curl behind her ear.

The million things Frank wants to say implode within him. _I missed you, How is the Underworld, So much has changed since you've been gone, I think about you everyday_ \- but they all lie dead on his tongue and instead, a rogue, bitter question is flung out of his mouth. "Why did you do that?"

Hazel replies, unsurprised. "I saw the hellhound. You would've died. I had to."

"No!" Frank bites back, "No! You could have let me die, instead."

"No," Hazel replies, so simple and sure. "I couldn't. "

Rage burrows under Frank's skin and he is angry - angry at himself for letting Hazel die - no, he realizes. Frank is angry that Hazel died. As stupid and selfish as it is, Frank is upset that just like his entire family, Hazel left him alone. 

He sifts through everything else he wants to say, the things he wants her to know. Frank didn't want to let this storm rise up in his throat like bile.

"Hazel," he begins, and lets the name bloom into giddy happiness. He focuses on her, here, and he can almost pretend that she never left.

"So much has changed," he continues, like she went away on a sabbatical and he's catching her up, "like, Percy went to start school. He's on the swim team. And Piper and Jason, they went to school too, but they drop into Camp so often it's like they're still around."

"What about you?" Hazel asks, earnest and genuine. It almost feels like a normal conversation, one they would have wandering Temple Hill or overlooking the Field of Mars. 

"Well, I-I'm an illegal immigrant with no legal guardian. It's just Camp for me."

The silence that follows is accidental. Frank traces the planes of Hazel's face with his eyes, burning it into his memory. Though a small smile still graces her face, her eyebrows are lowered in an apology. Already, in the last few moments, Hazel had become more transparent, the mist around her fading away and taking her with it.

"I can't stay." She says.

An icicle drops from Frank's voicebox to his stomach. He trips forward, scanning her face desperately.

"Hazel. Please." Frank's voice slips into silence. He swallows it away. "Please, stay. Don't go. Please, please - "

Hazel traces a ghostly thumb over Frank's lips. It dissolves as it brushes him.

"It's okay, Frank. I'll see you soon." Hazel reaches a hand out and combs through the side of Frank's head. Frank can almost her fingertips pressing on his temple, like a kiss from the wind. "You've grown out your hair. I like it."

Grief washes over Frank in a familiar riptide.

He reaches out and places a hand on Hazel's cheek. 

All he feels is air.

\--

Gems and gold begin to people in small clusters around Frank and Hazel moments before it happens. 

Hazel's body shakes but she holds fast to Frank's hand. Frank presses her hand to his cheek, his fingers cupping hers. 

"What was that for, Hazel? Why would you do that?" 

Hazel doesn't respond. 

She dies facing the sky. 

Anger touches Frank first. He finds he is standing and holding Hazel's spatha, but he doesn't remember moving.

Frank plants his feet in the dirt around Hazel and guards her. 

He attacks everything that breaths. He bares his teeth in an almost smile as he rakes through the monsters. A guttural scream echoes around him and he realizes it's his. 

At the sound, monsters begin scrambling away from him, fleeing on all sides of the battlefield.

It is only then that he leaves Hazel's body. He chases after them, destroying them three at a time with the oversized blade. As it rips through the billowy flesh of a ventus, Frank releases a hysteric laugh at the fear in its eyes.

How could he ever think he was anything but a child of War? 

When he returns to Hazel, he kneels back down, spatha strapped to his back. He gently scoops Hazel's hand back in his and closes his eyes.

Frank doesn't hear his name being called until the camper places a hand on his shoulder.

"Praetor Zhang," Marcus says. "We have to go."

He's waiting by Hazel for too long. Though there's not a monster on the battlefield, it won't take long for them to regroup and attack.

A thought, red and angry, flashes through Frank's mind. 

_Let them come. I'll rip them into dust with my teeth._

But Hazel's cold hand is still resting in his and there are other campers - really, just kids - and Frank is the leader. Instead he says, "Any losses?"

Frank can hear the camper swallow. "No, but Becker has a broken arm and Arion's hind leg has been wounded." 

Frank shoves his anger away and lets numbness take over. He lets go of Hazel's hand and stands. 

The other campers carry Becker in their arms as they make their way back. Arion limps beside Frank feebly, nuzzling the body that hangs in his arms.

And Frank carries Hazel back home. She curls into his arms and is so _small_ and Frank pretends she is sleeping. The sun is setting as they reach camp. 

Night weighs on the sky by the time Frank tells Nico. It only gets darker.

\--

Hazel fades away.

After Nico shadow travels them back to the edge of Camp Half-Blood's forest, Frank walks beside him in silence. The sun shines an inch away from the horizon and reminds Frank that their adventure had, really, been brief.

The walk is silent and awkward. Frank attempts to wipe his tears subtly, but he can almost feel the heavy pink around his eyes that betray him. When they arrive at the Hades cabin, Frank is relieved.

"Thanks," Frank says. He's surprised by how weak his voice is, a tiny croak in the face of a great silence.

Nico doesn't acknowledge him. He walks into the Hades cabin. The door is almost shut when Frank presses against it gently. Nico looks up and him in surprise. 

The words Kamikaze out of Frank's mouth before he can leash them.

"I'm sorry."

Nico looks at him as if through a thick veil. 

"That she died. That I couldn't save her."

"Hazel doesn't seem sorry about it."

"She should be."

"Why are you talking like that?" Nico's eyes are dark and so suddenly angry that is almost scares Frank.

"Hazel _died_ for you and you're just throwing that away - "

"Because I'm not worth her!" 

Nico stared up at him, eyes wide and brow furrowed. Frank heaved an angry, shaking breath. 

"A thousand of me wouldn't add up to the worth of Hazel Levesque!"

"Obviously," Nico contradicted, "that's not what Hazel thought."

He closes the cabin door, leaving Frank alone.

**Author's Note:**

> I want a t-shirt that says "you can take the demigod out of the Underworld but you can't take the Underworld out of the demigod"
> 
> Sister work for (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15498927)


End file.
